Let Viewers Decide, Now And In Future Revising History When You Start Prettifying, Where Do You Stop?

A downtown Spokane monument erected in an earlier time bears a plaque whose inscription includes the word “savage.” Should that be changed or left alone?

The bronze statue of Ensign John Robert Monaghan has stood at the corner of Riverside and Monroe for 94 years. An adjoining sculpture shows the Samoans firing guns and arrows at Monaghan.

A plaque beneath the statue states, “During the retreat of the allied forces from the deadly fire and overwhelming number of the savage foe, he alone stood the fearful onslaught.”

Should an additional plaque be placed on the statue to explain the word “savage” and the “thought process of the time”? The Spokane Human Rights Commission recently formed a committee to review a complaint about the monument, and that is one of the remedies being studied.

The statue should be left as it is. Let people read the plaque and decide for themselves the meaning. The intent of the plaque, written nearly 100 years ago, was not to offend. The word was used to describe a type of behavior, not a particular group of people.

And if this monument is changed, what’s next?

Would every statue across America be surveyed to remove any derogatory wording that may offend someone? Or would wording have to be added to place the statues in historical context?

Then, maybe every book would be audited to remove offensive wording, books such as Mark Twain’s “Roughing It in the Sandwich Islands,” written in 1872. Twain’s description about Captain Cook and his comrades being surrounded by “fifteen thousand maddened savages” would be rewritten to eliminate the “savage” reference.

There are also thousands of negative, derogatory statements uttered in the movies. Scenes that contain those statements could simply be removed.

History books would be next. All references to witch hunting, slavery, the McCarthy era, and Japanese-American internment camps would be deleted.

Does all of this sound ridiculous? It should.

The Monaghan statue is an artifact of history. And like history, it shouldn’t be revised. Life, and history, are messy. To not offend is an impossible task.

Most people have common sense. Let them read the plaque and form their own opinion of the words and their intent.